New York City firefighters work at the scene of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, 131st St. and Newport Ave. in the Rockaway Beach section of the Queens borough of New York Monday, Nov. 12, 2001. Homes in the neighborhood were destroyed; there were no known survivors aboard the plane. (AP Photo/Victor Nicastro)

Photo: VICTOR NICASTRO

New York City firefighters work at the scene of the crash of...

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A New York City firefighter is framed as he looks through a window after debris that landed in the backyard of a house started a fire at the scene of the crash of an American Airlines jetliner en route to the Dominican Republic with 255 people aboard crashed moments after takeoff from Kennedy Airport in the Queens borough of New York, Monday, Nov 12, 2001. (AP Photo/John-Marshall Mantel)

Photo: JOHN-MARSHALL MANTEL

A New York City firefighter is framed as he looks through a window...

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A large section of the tailpiece of American Airlines Flight 587 is lifted off a boat by a crane after the Airbus A300 crashed in the Rockaway Beach section of the Queens borough of New York Monday, Nov. 12, 2001. The tailpiece was recovered from Jamaica Bay and towed to shore. (AP Photo/Daniel P. Derella)

Photo: DANIEL P. DERELLA

A large section of the tailpiece of American Airlines Flight 587 is...

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Firefighters search through debris at the scene of today's American Airlines Flight 587 crash, en route from New York to the Dominican Republic, Monday, Nov. 12, 2001, in New York. (AP Photo/John-Marshall Mantel)

Photo: JOHN-MARSHALL MANTEL

Firefighters search through debris at the scene of today's American...

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New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, right, speaks at a news conference with New York Gov. George Pataki outside the Ramada Plaza Hotel after American Airlines flight 587 crashed minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport Monday, Nov. 12, 2001 in New York. Families of the victims of the Dominican Republic bound flight are receiving news about the crash at the airport hotel. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)

Photo: SUZANNE PLUNKETT

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, right, speaks at a news...

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Members of the United Nations Security Council, including British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, front left, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, front right, pause for a moment of silence Monday, Nov. 12, 2001, to honor the victims of a plane crash earlier in the day in New York. U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Negroponte, is at right, behind Powell.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Photo: RICHARD DREW

Members of the United Nations Security Council, including British...

THE CRASH OF FLIGHT 587 / Accident is focus in probe of crash / 265 killed in New York -- officials find no evidence of terrorism / Dominican-bound jet hits residential area

2001-11-13 04:00:00 PDT New York -- The crash of American Airlines Flight 587 appears to be an accident, federal officials said yesterday, attempting to allay fears that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were being repeated.

"At this time, all indications are that this is an accident," Marion Blakey,

The jetliner broke apart in the air yesterday, about two minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, and plunged nose-first into a dozen homes in a densely populated Queens neighborhood near the airport and about 15 miles east of downtown New York.

None of the 260 passengers and crew aboard the plane bound for the Dominican Republic is believed to have survived the fiery crash. New York Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Dunne said 265 bodies had been recovered, a figure that apparently included people who were on the ground at the time of the crash. There was no immediate report on the total number of fatalities on the ground. At least six and perhaps as many as nine residents of Belle Harbor,

a working-class neighborhood on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens, have been reported missing.

Blakey said investigators had retrieved the cockpit voice recorder and listened to portions of the cockpit recording, which contained only the voices of the pilot and the first officer. Blakey said the first officer had been piloting the plane at the time of the crash.

"The communications were normal from the cockpit up until the last few seconds before the crash," she said. She would not reveal what had been said in those last few seconds.

Despite the assurances that the crash appeared to be accidental, the downed Airbus 300 set off a new round of national jitters -- more fighter jets were scrambled, and airports, tunnels and bridges in the New York area were temporarily closed, bringing back an uncomfortable echo of the days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Smoke and flames billowed into the sky, and the stench of jet fuel pervaded the waterfront community as horrified residents ran from their homes. Some said they feared nuclear war, others another terrorist attack.

The NTSB said both of the plane's engines had been found. Each one was a block away from the central crash site. The jet took off 74 minutes late because of routine security checks required on international flights since Sept. 11, said Don Carty, chief executive officer of American Airlines.

Investigators believe there was an explosion aboard the plane -- possibly caused by mechanical failure. Investigators are focusing on the plane's General Electric engines, whose history includes faulty engine mounts and midflight explosions. Witnesses on the ground told authorities that they had heard a loud booming noise consistent with an explosion.

Authorities do not believe that the crash was a terrorist act but are not ruling anything out, a White House official said. However, the NTSB is taking the lead on the investigation and not the FBI, further signaling that officials believe the plane went down because of a malfunction and not because of foul play.

But the timing was chillingly coincidental, almost two months and one day to the hour after two hijacked airliners slammed into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, destroying the landmark towers and killing nearly 5,000 people.

Although there is no evidence to suggest yesterday's catastrophe was another terror attack, said New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, there is "no definitive conclusion to what caused the crash, and there won't be for a long time."

The Coast Guard found evidence of a fuel dump in nearby Jamaica Bay -- pilots fearing they will crash dump fuel to reduce the likelihood of fire and explosion. But the NTSB said the fuel instead could have leaked out as the plane was descending.

After examining jet fuel at JFK for possible contamination and finding none,

the airport was scheduled to reopen yesterday evening, said Gov. George Pataki.

In Belle Harbor, residents -- many firefighters and police officers -- were just starting to recover from the tragedies of Sept. 11.

"I lost so many friends in the attack," said Richard Knott, who lives a block away from yesterday's crash. "Even before this happened, children in the neighborhood were frightened every time they saw a plane fly by."

Eugene Sanflilippo, a 45-year-old mechanic living only a block away from the crash, said he thought it was the end of the world.

"I heard two explosions rock my house," he said. "There were people screaming. We (neighbors) went out to every house we could get to. They had no idea what hit them. At first we thought it was a nuclear bomb. That's how loud it was.

"There was so much smoke that you couldn't tell how much damage there was."

Mark Aiken, an off-duty New York firefighter, saw the plane spiral nose down as he was driving in his car to a restaurant for breakfast. He lives close to the crash site.

"The plane hit, and there was a loud boom and a lot of smoke," he said, partially in shock.

Until yesterday, Aiken thought the worst was behind him. Three days earlier he attended his brother-in-law, Richie Allen's memorial. Allen, also a firefighter, died in the World Trade Center tragedy.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who represented the Rockaway area for nine years as a congressman, had one word to describe the scene -- "eerie."

"This is a hardy lot," Schumer said of New Yorkers while he toured the scene and spoke to constituents.

Several miles away, at the Ramada Plaza Hotel near JFK, grief counselors met with family members of the crash victims. Most of the passengers were of Dominican descent, said Victor Morisete-Romero, executive director of Community Association of Progressive Dominicans, who acted as a spokesman for some of the victim's families. He said many of those killed on Flight 587 lived in New York's Washington Heights and were traveling to visit family and friends.

Pastor Brian Jordan of St. Francis of Assisi Church in midtown Manhattan, who works with the immigrant community, came to the Ramada to hand out rosaries, to listen and to pray.

"There's a lot of tears and a lot of frustration," he said. "They're saying,

'Why did this happen?'

"This is a double disaster -- Sept. 11 and now Nov. 12."

Morisete-Romero said at least 40 Dominicans had died in the World Trade Center.

The 31-year-old cabdriver was going to the Dominican Republic to bring his wife and 2-year-old twin boys back to the United States to live with him and his mother in the Bronx.

Moran said his brother worked seven nights a week to raise the money to bring his family to this country.

"He was a very good father," Moran said while crying and clutching a photograph of Diaz and his brother's two sons. "I can't believe he's gone."

Moran said he hadn't told Diaz's wife yet and had come to the Ramada to get more information.

Alba Reyes, 38, collapsed when she saw her husband's name on the passenger list. For 10 years she and her husband, 46-year-old Richard Reyes, tried to have a second child. Four months ago, they were thrilled when Alba got pregnant.

"Look what happened now -- she's going to have a baby without a husband," said Reyes' cousin, America Corona, as tears streamed down her cheeks.